Wasting Time

I realized something today. It was something that I already knew, to a point; it hit me anew today, with the strength of an ocean wave rushing over me. I realized how much time we waste. Some of us waste much more than others, but I think each of us has struggled with this to a point. For, " If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:8

I thought about Jesus, Billy Graham, Mother Theresa, and so many other amazing, influential people. What would have happened if they had wasted their time? What if Jesus had sat in front of a TV playing video games every chance he got. What would he have accomplished? Would he have been able to save us from our sin? Absolutely not. Jesus never wasted a single minute. He took every chance he got to sow seeds for his father in heaven. What if Billy Graham had fallen into a slump and allowed himself to become addicted to " his soap" or " daily movie night?" Would he have still been able to be God's instrument to bring thousands of people to know Christ? Of course he wouldn't have! If Mother Theresa had have sat in her room reading her novel every night, would she have established the kind of mission, and the kind of reputation that she had? No.

Mother Theresa said once that " we are all pencils in the hand of God." For most people who follow after God, this is our greatest desire. We all want to be used by God, to produce his fruit. Imagine that God came to you, his pencil, so that he could write a beautiful love letter to someone who needed to hear from him very badly. He saw, however, that you were busy, busy doing things that would not benifit him, or you in any way. He tapped on the wall and called your name, softly, but you didn't hear him. So, he walked away, sad because he couldn't use you that day. It isn't that the pencil is any worse because he was busy. Maybe what he was doing was good, even; but it was not best. We are not saved by our works, but working for God is how we become full of joy.

The older I get, the more I think about how short our life is. I wondered, if I died tommorro, how much would I regret? How would I think about the way that I spent my time here? Was it productive? Sometimes I think we treat life like a credit card with a sky high limit, thinking that we can waste as much of it as we want to, because we have lots left. We need to realize that we do not have sky high limits on our life long credit cards. For every hour that we do something that is completely unproductive, we could be doing something else that we will look back on later and smile. We do not know how long we have here. It is a mystery to us. I would love to build a legacy while I am here, and the only way that I can do that is to be careful with how I spend my time.

Taking my little revalation one step farther, it is really no wonder that so many of us fall into the trap of wasting time. What better way for the enemy to stunt our growth. Many of us are very strong in our belief and faith in God, so the enemy can't steal, kill, or destroy our salvation. How clever of him to invent things that seem fun, or even harmless, and esspecially the ones that are addicting, to keep us too busy to put our knowledge to use! The bible says that the enemy came to kill, steal, and destroy. He came to kill us physically( murder, suicide, self induced sicknesses), to steal our usefulness to God ( wasting time, poor financial management, etc.) and to destroy what we have ( friendships, giftings, etc.). Through tempting us to throw our time away, how much of that does he accomplish? I have a picture in my head of a virtual zombie, sitting, addicted to a video game where he or she is killing people, and stealing things. They reach into a bag of potatoe chips empty mindedly, not realizing they have already eaten the whole bag. The hours seem to fly by, and the person feels that so much has been accomplished! They have passed five levels in four hours! They look up at the clock and realize that they should really go to bed, the house is still dirty, and they didn't feel like answering the phone to talk to their friends, one of whom called with a prayer request. ( I realize this is an extreme example but I am making a point.) Their spouse has given up on them and gone to bed already. With a sigh, they turn the TV off, glancing towards the window... and see Jesus has been sitting there the whole time, without being noticed. He wanted to chat, but had to turn his face away from the blatant sin that the person had so easilly excused of their TV. How would they feel...